Waking Up in the Hell
by hanzoo
Summary: What will happen when Section Chief Strauss gets to the field? Who knows but you'll soon find out as well as Agent Emily Prentiss.
1. Interview

„Prentiss, can I talk to you?" Hotch asked and watched Emily as she walked towards him, curious why he would want to talk to her. They were in the bullpen, the team already left to prepare for the flight to Seattle. Now Emily and Hoth were the only once in the room. "We have a problem."

"What do you mean Hotch? What problem?" Emily asked totally confused.

"Strauss." This one simple word had the ability to spoil Emily's day. She slowly sat down on the chair and sighed deeply.

"What about her?" Hotch hesitated for a few seconds and he could see haw annoyed Emily was. "Just tell me ok!"

"She wants to be on this case with us. With _you,_ more specifically." Emily just stared at him with her mouth open.

"What? Why? Is this about what happened in Colorado? " she stood up anger all over her face.

"Yes it is Agent Prentiss." Emily turned around to see Section Chief Erin Strauss standing right behind her.

"May I ask why ma'am? Because I don't see any reason why you should be concerned. As well as Bureau psychologist, who cleared me for active duty."

"Oh, don't worry Agent Prentiss. I just want to see for myself how you're doing. It should be just for this one case and then you'll get rid of me. Now, we should go don't you think? I am sure we have a killer to catch." She turned around and quickly left the room leaving speechless Emily Prentiss standing in the middle.

* * *

"So you know what to do. We'll meet back here at station at five?" Everybody nodded and headed out of the station. Emily went to her SUV and watched Strauss getting on the passenger seat. There was a silence for the first five minutes. Very awkward five minutes. Finally it was Strauss who spoke first. "So who is he?"

"What do you mean ma'am?" Emily asked while trying to stay calm. She still couldn't believe that Strauss was sitting next to her on their way to interview a witness.

"Who's the man that found the body?" Strauss asked again.

"Oh, well his name is Roland Davidson, 33 years old. He works as a cook. At the restaurant near the alley where our Unsub hid the body. Mr. Davidson said he went to smoke and saw a hand behind some boxes. He thought it was just a homeless person but when he realized she was dead he called the police. He said that he saw someone running out of the alley but he wasn't able to identify him. We should be at his house in twenty minutes." Strauss only nodded and they remained silent for the rest of the ride. Once they arrived they walked to the door and Emily rang a bell. After a few seconds the door opened and they stood face to face with Roland Davidson. Emily opened her mouth to introduce herself to him but Straus beat her to it.

"Mr. Davidson?" She asked and when the man nodded she continued. "I'm Agent Strauss and this is Agent Prentiss. We're with the FBI and we want to ask you some questions about what you saw." She said while showing him her badge and Emily did the same as she tried to control her anger.

"Of course, come on in." Davidson stepped aside to allow the two female agents to step inside. Emily already studied his behavior while Strauss started to ask the questions, but he said he didn't see anything but hooded figure. He looked tired, like he hasn't slept in days. And he was obviously nervous. He was sweating and his breathing was slightly quicker. And he was also looking on the clock on his left.

"Are you expecting someone Mr. Davidson?" Emily asked and Davidson looked at her again with a confused look on his face but there was something else in his eyes. It was fear. "No, of course not. Why would you ask?"

"Well, we're here like, what, fifteen minutes and you already looked at the clock like ten times. So I'm guessing you're either waiting for someone or…" her voice trailed off as she noticed that Davidson was looking somewhere behind her with pure terror in his eyes. "Oh, shit." She hissed and quickly turned around just in time to see the fist as it collided with her face. Emily fell on the ground and immediately tried to stand up but then a hard kick hit her side and the sound of breaking ribs filled the room. Emily moaned and gasped for air as a heavy boot hit her already hurt side. When she tried to get up a deep voice resonated in her ears. "Don't even think about it Agent Prentiss or you'll feel what else I can do." She looked up and saw this unknown man standing above her aiming the gun at her head.

"What do you want? She hissed through her clenched teeth. The man laughed and took a step towards Davidson, totally ignoring Strauss who was quietly standing in the corner of the room trying to disappear into the wall.

"I want this one to shut up. Like you, I saw how nervous he was. I know he didn't say anything but we both know he would eventually."

"No, I wouldn't say anything. I swear, please!"Davidson begged as the stranger pointed his gun on Davidson's head. In that moment Emily took her gun out of the holster. Thankfully the man didn't notice and continued talking to Davidson.

"How don't I believe you, Davidson?" and he smiled with evil grin. Emily was still lying on the floor and she looked around to see where Strauss was. She just stood there frozen in shock and stared directly at Emily. Emily pointed her gun weapon at the intruder's back and slowly stood up with her other hand pressed to her side as she tried to ease the pain the movement caused her. "Stop right there and put the gun down."

"Sorry Agent, but I can't do that. You know, it doesn't matter if you kill me. People like me are replaceable. There will always be someone else to finish my task." He said but he lowered the gun and slowly put it on the ground just like he was told. Then he turned to look at Emily with a small smile. "How are your ribs, Agent?"

Emily could see Davidson slowly walk out of the room he held his hand to his ear, signalizing he would call for help.


	2. Do I Look OK?

"My ribs are fine, thanks for asking." she shot back at him. "Now put your hands behind your head and take a step forward. " He did move his hands but he stood still on the spot near the table. "I told you…" Emily started but was cut off as the vase from the table connected with her right arm and her gun felt onto the ground. Sharp pain coursed through her whole arm and she looked down at it she saw red liquid leaking from the wound and a piece of glass sticking out. She quickly turned to look at him. He already had his gun back, wide grin on his face. His gun was pointed at her but then he spotted Strauss. She was still in the same place, in the same position. _Why won't she do something? She's just standing there. Oh my God, this isn't good. _

"I see your friend here is quite in a shock. Are you sure she is an FBI Agent?" Emily could see how Strauss started to shake. Her eyes were always on the gun in his hand. The man slowly walked towards Strauss and stopped only few feet from her. He pulled a knife from behind his back. His attention was now only on Strauss. He pressed the knife on her cheek and she tried to back up but she was already pressed to the wall. Emily could see the thin trickle of blood running down her pale skin. She noticed he unconsciously lowered his gun.

_Come on Em, this could be your only chance. _Before she could really think it through her body collided with his and they were on the ground. Emily could hear Strauss yelling but she couldn't react, she had to focus on him. She knocked the gun out of his grasp but the knife cut her cut her on the right forearm. She hit him in the jaw and he took a step back. Emily was going to kick him to the stomach but he held her leg and twisted it and she let out a scream as she felt the pain in her knee and before she could do anything the man was on top of her pressing the tip of the knife to her stomach and Emily froze and stared into his cold eyes. For a while nobody said a word and they were just looking at each other. But then he laughed and put more pressure on the knife. She gasped in surprise as the blade slid into her body a little. She felt worm blood flowing down her side.

"How does that feel, Agent? Does it hurt? No? Well, maybe I should put more pressure on it." And as he pushed the knife deep into her flesh she couldn't breathe from the huge amount of pain that spread into her whole body. Her eyes widened and every single one of her muscles tensed. He took the knife out and put it next to the previous wound. It was hard to breathe for Emily and she looked to her right for a second. And that's when she saw it, her service weapon. She knew she could reach it but she wasn't sure if she had that strength in her arm with the piece of vase still stuck in her upper arm. She looked back at him and closed her eyes as if she was giving up. Of course she wasn't. But he didn't know that. When she opened her eyes again, he wasn't looking at her. He was eyeing Strauss and that was Emily's chance to set herself free.

She hit him to the head and quickly took the gun but it wasn't enough. When she turned back to him and aimed the gun at his chest she felt excruciating pain in her abdomen in the same moment she pulled the trigger. She let out a scream as the dead weight of his body caused the blade of the knife slide even deeper into her stomach and the pain was so intense she wanted for this to end. She wanted the darkness that was slowly blurring her vision to come faster so she wouldn't suffer anymore. But she was still conscious and the pain was horrible and it wouldn't stop. She wasn't even aware of the other injuries she had like her knee or her arm. But she was quite sure she had a concussion but the dizziness she felt could as well be from the blood loss. She couldn't move and what was worse she couldn't breathe.

Fortunately the sound of gunshot brought Strauss back to life. "Oh my God, Emily!" She shouted and ran towards the wounded agent. She knelt next to her and tried to roll the dead body off of her but her actions caused that the knife moved to the side a little and Emily let out a groan of pain but in the first moment the body was gone it felt much better even though she still couldn't breathe. She opened her eyes and sow Strauss hovering above her. "Emily, are you ok?" _Are you kidding me?_ Emily thought for herself. _I'm lying on the ground in the pool of my own blood and she's asking if I am ok?_ She tried to focus her eyes on her but it was no use so she closed them again.

"Do I… look… ok?" she whispered breathlessly. "I ca… can't breathe… He had to… hit… something."

"Ok, I'll pull it out, then." Strauss said and Emily's eyes widened.

"No, you… can't… pull it… out. The… knife… slows the… bleeding." she said quietly. "Just put… the pressure… on the other… wound. And… call Hotch. Tell him… what… happened." Strauss noticed her voice was getting weaker with every word. She did as Prentiss told her and put her hands on the younger agent's abdomen. She could hear Emily moan and she felt her hot blood leaking between her fingers. When she was sure her hand covered the whole wound she carefully took her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed Agent Hotchner's number. He picked it up after the third buzz. "Hotchner."

"Agent Hotchner, this is Section Chief Strauss. You have to come up here to the witness' house." In that moment she registered movement and she saw Davidson as he hurried towards Emily and put the pressure on the wound so that Strauss could step out with her phone call. "I called the police and an ambulance but it will take a while." He said and looked at the agent on the ground and saw she was already unconscious and was barely breathing. There was huge amount of blood around her body and her right leg was in wrong direction. He looked up at Strauss worry and fear in his eyes. Hotch's voice got Strauss' attention back to him.

"Strauss, can you hear me? What happened? Where's Prentiss?" She could hear his worried tone.

"That's why I'm calling you. We were interviewing the witness and then there was a man and he wanted to kill him. Emily was fighting him and she shot him but she's hurt. She's hurt badly, Aaron. We called an Ambulance and police but they said it'll take a while and I'm not sure she has time." She felt tears on her face and then she heard sirens in the distance. "Um, I think they are here. I can hear the sirens."

"Ok, I'll send Morgan and Rossi, they're the closest to your location. The will be there in couple minutes." Then he hung up and Strauss looked back at Emily. She was so pale. _How could this happen? How could I let this happen? Why didn't I do something? She needed help and I just stood there. She was saving my life and when she needed me… Oh my God, what if she dies!_

She turned to Davidson. "I think they are here so I'm gonna go out and lead them in here."

When she got out of the house the sound of sirens was louder and after few seconds she could see police cars driving towards the house with the ambulance behind them. When they stopped Strauss immediately told the medics where to go and she stayed standing in front of the house and started to prepare herself because of the black SUV that parked on the drive way. And she was sure that the man behind the steering wheel was very angry Agent Derek Morgan.


	3. Our Little Princess

"Where is she?" Morgan yelled as he jumped out of the car and was already running towards the house with Rossi right behind him. But before they could get there medics were pushing the stretcher with Emily on top of it out of the door. Morgan's eyes widened at the sight in front of him. There was so much blood covering her body. He had to look away he didn't want to see his best friend like that. Then he realized she needed him and wanted to run to her but it was Rossi who made the first move. He quickly crossed the distance between him and Emily and took her left hand in his own. The medics were trying to make him leave but he wasn't listening. He was concentrated on the brunette lying in front of him.

"Emily, open your eyes for me, Kiddo. Emily can you hear me?" He spoke to her praying she would open her eyes as a reaction to his voice. He saw how she struggled to open her eyes and when she finally did he could see the pain in them. He hated to see her like that. She was like daughter to him and he couldn't lose her. He already lost one child and he couldn't let that happen again.

"Dave." He heard the quiet whisper from the lips of the young woman in front of him. And as he was about to answer she started coughing. And he was horrified as he saw the red blood coming from her mouth. In that moment the medics no longer cared about him and started shouting orders. He didn't understand much all he could register was _internal bleeding, punctured lung and an oxygen mask . _And all he could do was to watch how they loaded Emily into the ambulance and with the sirens on, they speeded towards the hospital. Then he turned away and saw Morgan and Strauss standing a few feet away. They were both staring at him with looks of shock on their faces.

"Ok, we have to go to the hospital, now." He said panic in his voice. He couldn't concentrate and could feel his hands shaking until he felt someone's hand on his shoulder and he realized that Morgan was now standing right in front of him.

"Rossi go, I'll stand here till the tech's arrival and I'll try to find out what happened since Strauss looks like she won't be able to say something anytime soon and I'll get to the hospital as soon as I can. And you should take her with you. To get her checked out." When Rossi didn't answer Morgan lightly squeezed his shoulder and continued. "She will be ok Rossi. You know her, she's a fighter. She will be fine." Rossi slowly nodded then looked at Strauss who looked still at shock but acknowledged him with a shaky nod and walked towards the SUV with him.

Once they were on the road he couldn't hold it back and the question simply flew out of his mouth. "What the Hell happened in there?" he almost shouted which caused Strauss to flinch. He looked at her for a moment but then turned back to the road. He waited for a while but she didn't answer. He felt anger rise up inside of him at her lack of response but he made himself concentrate on driving. He can yell at her later. They spend the rest of the ride in silence and when they pulled up on the hospital parking lot he jumped out of the car, not bothering if Strauss was behind him. He ran inside and immediately approached a nurse who was sitting behind the computer.

"Excuse me. My name is Agent David Rossi, FBI. I'm looking for Agent Emily Prentiss. She was brought here a while ago." The nurse looked at his ID then nodded and started to typing something on the computer. After few moments, when Rossi was already nervous like hell, she looked up with a sad frown.

"She was ushered on the OR for the surgery. You can wait over there till the doctor comes to inform you about her condition." She said kindly and pointed on the door with the sign that said 'WAITING ROOM'.

Rossi nodded but before he left he said. "Do you know anything else?"

The nurse shook her head. "I'm sorry. She went straight to the surgery. They barely had time to tell me her name so I could put it into computer."

"Ok thank you. Oh, and um, there should come some other people asking for Agent Prentiss so could you just send them into the waiting room to us?" Rossi asked and the nurse nodded with a small smile but that quickly disappeared as she looked at Strauss.

"Ma'am, are you ok? I think somebody should look at that cut on your cheek. Wait a minute… Sam? Could you please come here for a sec?" She called somewhere behind her and then a young nurse appeared next to her with questioning look on her face. "Could you please take care of Mrs. …" "Strauss. Erin Strauss." Rossi informed the two nurses who just nodded and then Sam walked with Strauss out of his sight. The nurse behind the computer smiled at him. "I will make sure she will get back to you when they are finished. You just go inside and take a break. You look like you need it." Rossi nodded and thanked and headed to the waiting room. Once inside he sat on the chair but a moment after he started pacing around the empty room. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing that he was alone but at least he could think. Finally he couldn't stand it anymore and dialed Morgan's number and waited for him to pick up.

"Hay Rossi, any news?" Morgan said in the first second. He sounded worried and angry at the same time.

"No, we just got here. Emily is on the surgery and they took Strauss to get checked out the cut on her cheek. Derek, when are the others coming? I'm here like five minutes and I think I'm losing my mind."

"I talked to JJ, she's on her way with Reid and Hotch. They should be there soon. And Garcia, as much as she wants to be there, she will come with me. Right now she has to… check on something." Rossi could sense the hesitation in his voice.

"Did you find something?" he asked but he wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"Rossi, they were watching. We found cameras and mikes in the house. Garcia is working on the video and as soon as she'll get to it she'll send it to us. But I'm not sure if I want to watch it alone. So I think I'll just wait until we get to the hospital." He paused for a second to take deep breath and continued. "We checked the house and I have to tell you the living room is a mess. There is a lot of blood and I think most of it is Emily's. And I saw the body of that creep and you know what? I'm proud at our Princess. She beat him good." He laughed a little but there was no humor in his voice.

"Ok, Morgan. Just get here soon ok? See you later." He sighed and hung up. He sat heavily onto the chair and until the others get there, there was nothing he could do. Only pray for his little girl to be okay.


	4. The Tape

It took Hotch, JJ and Reid about ten minutes since he talked to Morgan to get to the waiting room. They looked tired like all of them and JJ looked like she was crying. She entered the room first and Rossi's head shot up immediately. She stopped right in front of him and didn't even pause to catch a breath before she started rambling. "Where is she? Is she ok? Did they tell you anything?"

"JJ, calm down, I don't know anything. The doctor didn't show up, yet. Right now she's on the surgery. Come on sit down, all of you, you're making me nervous." He said in a calm voice. And the three agents sat down next to him. JJ was next to Rossi and he noticed her hands were shaking so he took her hands in his own and after a while she calmed down a little but was still obviously very upset. And who would blame her they were all scared to death for Emily.

Hotch was sitting on the other side next to Rossi and was quietly thinking about what happened. Morgan told them that he would be there as soon as he get's Garcia from the police station and they would watch the tape together because honestly no one wanted to see exactly what was done to Emily. But something was missing but he couldn't put his finger on it. After what seemed like eternity but in reality it was probably only three minutes it clicked.

"Rossi, where is Strauss?" he asked suddenly and everybody flinched.

"What? Oh, yeah they took her to be checked out. She has a cut on the cheek. It looked like from a knife, so he had to be really close." He paused for a moment. "I'm trying to figure out how come she has only one cut but Emily is on the operation table right know fighting for her life." He said and that got everyone else's attention. But he remained quiet and after few seconds JJ spoke up.

"Well, we'll find out when Morgan and Garcia get here with the tape from the house." After that no one said another word. All of them were thinking about what was going on with their friend and what would happen if she wouldn't make it. Ten minutes of silence were interrupted by the sound of door opening. All four heads shot up with hope it would be Emily's doctor. But instead they saw Strauss followed by a nurse who gestured for her to sit down. She nodded and sat down to the chair on the opposite side of the room and kept her eyes on the floor. The cut on her cheek was cleaned up but there were no stitches. None of them spoke to her and she didn't seem to try to make any conversation with them, so they all sat there in quiet, not able to look somewhere else but the floor.

After what seemed like eternity the door opened again and this time Morgan and Garcia walked into the room. "Any news?" were Derek's first words. When everybody shook their heads he sighed deeply and led Garcia to sit. She was crying and visibly shaking. When she sat down he took the seat in front of Hotch. "Guys, we have the tape. We haven't watched it yet. We couldn't…" he paused for a second before he continued. "We should do it together." When everybody nodded Garcia pulled her laptop and they all shifted so they could see what was going on on the screen. When Garcia found the right part of the video she paused and took a deep breath. They all did. Then she pressed the play.

They heard Emily curse and suddenly there was a large man right behind her and when she turned around he punched her to the face. Garcia let out a small gasp as she watched her friend fall to the ground. And then they all flinched when a loud crack came out of the speaker as the men kicked Emily to her side and her ribs broke. They could see Strauss who backed off so he wouldn't notice she was even there. They watched the interaction between unsub and Emily and then she tackled him to the ground when he was about to hurt Strauss.

"Oh my God." It was JJ. The tears were running down her cheeks. She watched as he stabbed her for the first time. The pained look on Emily's face was horrible. She couldn't imagine in how much pain Emily had to be. And when the gunshot came out of the speaker and they saw Strauss roll the dead body off of their wounded friend Garcia and JJ were crying. Morgan was red with anger. Reid sat in his chair with face hidden in his hands. Hatch was staring at the screen and Rossi was combination of all of those. Suddenly he jumped out of the chair and ran towards Strauss. He grabbed her and shoved her on the wall.

"What the hell was that?!" He yelled into her face not caring the fear and tears in her eyes. The rest of the team now stood right behind him but they made no effort to stop him. "Why did you just stand there? You let this happen to her. Emily saved your life and you didn't move the finger to help her. He was about to kill you and now it's her who's fighting for her life. That should be you on that table and not her!"He took a step back, he was breathing heavily and he had a desperate need to punch something. "I'll make sure you won't step one foot in to the FBI ever again. And if she dies you'll wish you were never born." With that he sat back on his chair and stared at nothing. The other agents stared angrily at Strauss who just stood leaning against the wall with tears flowing from underneath her closed lids.

Hotch turned to look at his team. "Guys we should start working. This wasn't our unsub we have to find out who killed those women and who hired that bastard to kill Davidson."

"I'm not going anywhere." Rossi said immediately and JJ was close second. "Me neither."

Hotch sighed. "Ok but the rest of us should go. Morgan and Reid, you two go back to Davidson's house, me and Garcia are going to the pre_c_inct. Come on, let's get that son of a bitch. So we can tell Emily who's responsible for all of this when she wakes up. And Rossi, keep us updated." Rossi nodded and he and JJ watched the rest of their family leave the room. JJ took his hand and gave him a reassuring smile. They sat like that for about an two hours, no one sad a word. They all took turns on pacing across the room. And then the doors opened again and the doctor came in.

"Family of Emily Prentiss?"


	5. Your Fault!

"Family of Emily Prentiss?"

"Yes, that's us." Rossi said and he was at the doctor's side in an instant as well as JJ. Strauss remained silent at her seat but she raised her eyes to look what was happening. The doctor looked at the two agents.

"I'm Dr. Rogers I was assigned to Miss Prentiss case…' the doctor started but was soon interrupted.

"Agent Prentiss." Both Rossi and JJ said in the same tame. The doctor smiled and nodded but his smile quickly faded as he continued.

"Ok, first of all, Agent Prentiss is alive. He could see the relief wash over their faces but he had to continue. "She's alive however she is not out of the woods, yet. Agent Prentiss was brought here with two stab wounds in the abdomen. We were able to repair the damage caused by the knife but we also found two broken ribs which caused some internal bleeding. She was also losing a lot of blood from the wound on her arm and her right knee is dislocated but we were able to fix it all. It was touch and go for a while. She flat lined on us twice but she's a fighter. Right now she is in the ICU. We want to keep her sedated to give her body time to heal. And she is also on the ventilator to keep her breathing steady. Her lung was damaged because of one of the broken ribs but I have high hopes for her. Her tests look good, there's no brain damage. She has long road ahead of her but I believe she'll make full recovery eventually." He smiled kindly and watched the blonde woman closed her eyes and backed to the chair and sat down with her head in her hands. He turned to the older man who had tears of joy in his eyes but tried to hold them from falling.

"Can we see her?" Rossi asked and placed a hand on JJ's shoulder for support. The doctor hesitated for a while but then smiled again and nodded.

"I think that would be possible. Come with me." As they walked through the corridors towards the ICU the doctor started to explain how it will work in the next few days. "She should be under for at least one day and then we could lessen the medication and wait for her to wake up. Until then I have to ask you to be quiet and don't upset her. There were cases where sedated patients could hear what was going on around them. She needs her rest to get better." As they reached the doors the doctor stopped before he opened them and looked at the two agents that were desperate to see their friend.

"Now I have to warn you. She is hooked up on some machines and the ventilator. She has some bruises too and her leg is propped up. It's not a pretty sight." He waited for their nod and quietly opened the door. Rossi slowly made his way to the bed and looked down at his wounded friend. He took the chair next to her bed and sat down. He took her hand and started running small soothing circles on the back of her hand. He looked up at the sound of moving chair and watched as JJ took the same position on the other side of the bed. He then looked back at the tired features of Emily's face, at the dark bruise on her cheek and started to pray silently. He couldn't help the feeling of fear, even though the doctor said she was going to be fine. She looked so small in this large hospital bed. She was always so strong and guarded, she newer showed any signs of weakness. But there she was lying in front of him completely relaxed and fragile. He couldn't believe this was his Emily.

On the other side of the bed JJ was thinking the same thing as Rossi. She was thinking about how this could happen. And how it seems that it's always Emily who gets hurt. They sat there in silence and neither one of them noticed the doctor left. After about half an hour JJ stood up and told Rossi she's going to call Hotch to tell him that Emily is out of surgery and to ask for some news. When she left him there alone with Emily he continued to pray for her. He sat there and didn't even know how long or if JJ came back and eventually he fell asleep in the hospital chair still holding Emily's hand.

Strauss cautiously turned the corner and was now standing in front of Agent Prentiss' room. She saw Agent Jareau leaving the room and she wanted to look for herself haw Emily was doing. Although she wasn't sure if she really wanted to see what she caused to the younger woman. And then she realized she couldn't really go inside. There was still Agent Rossi and he already made himself clear he didn't want her anywhere near Emily. He really is protective over her. And Strauss knew there wasn't anything to change his mind. So she gave up and sat down on the chair and stared at door of the hospital room. Maybe she could get somewhere if she talked with Agent Jareau. She would understand that she needed to do this. That she needed to apologize for the pain she caused to Agent Prentiss and for saving her life. But she still couldn't help but feel nervous about approaching any member of this team. She knew very well that they didn't like her before but now… What could they possibly think now? And she was pretty sure that Agent Rossi was very serious about his plans of getting her out of the FBI. And she also knew that he would eventually get what he wanted.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps and when she looked up she saw that Agent Jareau was coming back with two cups of coffee in her hands. She looked at Strauss and stopped. She didn't say anything until Strauss stood up and fixed her skirt. "What are you doing here?" she asked coldly. Her blue eyes usually warm and caring were now cold and hard as steel.

"I… I just wanted to see her. To know how she is doing." She said quietly, she looked down not wanting to meet the blonde woman's gaze. She was too afraid of what she could see.

"How she is doing." JJ repeated slowly. "It's your fault she's in that room. You let him stab her. You had plenty opportunities to stop him but you just were just standing there and watched." Strauss could hear the anger in JJ's voice that she was trying to control. She closed her eyes and bowed her head as the silent tears fell from her from under her eyelids. "She almost died. No actually she really died. Twice! Her heart stopped twice on the table and now she is lying in hospital bed with tube down her throat because she can't breathe properly on her own. So, no! I would say you can't see her!" She said and her voice increased a little with each word so she was almost yelling at the end of their conversation. She then walked back to the hospital room leaving stunned Strauss standing in the middle of the hospital corridor.

She slowly closed the door because she didn't want to disturb her unconscious friend and as she took in the picture in front of her, her anger was almost completely gone. Rossi was lying half on the chair, half on Emily's bed and he was still holding brunette's right hand. She smiled and sat down in her previous spot and slowly sipped her coffee. She didn't want to wake Rossi up so she just silently watched this touching scene accompanied only with the sound of beeping and hissing caused by the ventilator.


End file.
